Online cheating: Conman inspired by TV crime shows

VADODARA: He is not even class X pass but

Gautam Panchal

had learnt the art of cheating people online by watching crime shows on various TV channels.

Thirty-two-year- old Panchal was nabbed by the detection of crime branch (DCB) on Saturday for cheating people by uploading fake pictures on

OLX

.

Panchal was remanded to three days of police custody.

“He used to watch a popular crime television show regularly and learnt the tricks of hiding his identity and cheating people. He picked up tips of how to avoid getting caught by the police while fleecing people online. Hence, Panchal never met the victims whom he duped,” said a crime branch official. Cops found link of a newspaper article about a similar modus operandi used by a conman in Delhi.

The victims told the cops that the accused had kept photos of a vehicle for sale on a popular website. When they approached him, he introduced himself as Himanshu Patel and sealed the deal after taking a token amount.

“It was bit tough to track him as Panchal used another name also never met any of the complainants. He used to demand token amount for the deal but whenever the complainant requested to meet and pay the entire amount, Panchal used to make some excuse and cancel the deal. He either talked with them on phone or through Whatsapp messages,” said

Ajaysinh Gohil

, police sub-inspector, cybercrime.

Panchal used to click photos of random car or motorbike and upload them on OLX for sale. When any interested buyer approached him, he used to demand the identity document of the buyer and later a token amount to seal the deal. Panchal used to use the documents provided by the buyer to buy SIM cards and also open bank accounts in different names.

“He had 32 SIM cards and opened 51 bank accounts by using the bogus identities. He used the sim cards for contacting the victims and bank accounts for siphoning the money,” said cops. Panchal is suspected to have duped 40 to 50 persons.